Betrothed: To the People’s Prince

‘Swim,’ Nicky said cautiously. ‘In the sea?’

‘That’s the one.’

‘Yay,’ he yelled, and Athena found herself smiling. Life couldn’t be all bad.

Threats were a nightmare; something for the dark recesses of the night. Not for now.

Nikos had gone fishing. Long may he stay there. Just as long as he stayed out of her head.

Was he nuts to go fishing? He had a team of fishermen working for him now, and a solid fleet of boats. He hardly needed to fish himself.

But he hadn’t slept. If he couldn’t sleep he might as well work.

At least Demos had left the island. It seemed he was on his way to Athens, maybe to confer with lawyers to try to figure a way around Thena’s right to rule.

He wouldn’t get answers he’d like. Athena’s right to the throne was inviolate.

As long as she stayed safe.

But if she left as she said she would…Anything could happen to her back in Manhattan. He couldn’t watch over her.

And Nicky…How could he get to know his son if he left? And Demos would still be a threat to him as well.

What the hell to do…

He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to lift them up, sweep them under his own protection, place them in his house and leave them there.

But he had to concede it wasn’t just common sense that was telling him to do that. It was sheer unequivocal lust.

He wanted Thena. He’d wanted her ten years ago and, astonishing or not, his desire was greater than ever. But she’d walked away once because of her career and now she was threatening to walk away again.

Was one career so important? He loved fishing, but would he put it aside if the island’s livelihood was in doubt?

Of course he would.

But Thena wasn’t him. Once he’d thought he’d known her, but her leaving had shocked his foundations to the core. Not telling him about Nicky had shaken him even further.

He no longer trusted her. And she didn’t trust him. He knew why.

But, regardless, it had been Thena’s decision to walk away. She hadn’t known about Christa or Marika then. So the choice had been hers. One phone call from her and his life would have followed a completely different course.

But it hadn’t. And now he had Christa. His little daughter who he’d decided years ago would be protected against everything. Everything.

Lay craypots, he told himself sharply. Work with your hands and not with your head.

So he laid craypots. But he just so happened to have taken his trawler around the headland, into the cove below the palace. He could watch the palace from here. He could see the beach.

So he was still laying craypots when they came down for a swim. Athena and Nicky, followed by Oscar.

Unashamedly he found his field glasses and watched. They were skipping down the path leading from the palace. Laughing at their dumb dog. Wearing swimsuits and carrying towels.

Where were his men?

He scoured the cliffs and found two, watching from above. Another was melting into the shadows in the cliff below.

He relaxed. She was safe. She wouldn’t be aware of the security men. She could enjoy her swim.

They’d reached the beach. She’d thrown off her towel and was chasing Nicky into the surf.

She was wearing a bikini. Red. He could see every curve of her delectable body.

He wanted her so much…How the hell was he going to control this?

They were swimming now. Nicky was almost as strong a swimmer as his mother. They were stroking out from the shallows, while Oscar barked objections from the shore.

His heart was doing weird things in his chest. He shouldn’t be watching.

His son.

His woman?

For the first time since Nikos had found her in Manhattan, she felt at peace.

She’d swum in these waters-not in this cove, but in one like it-as a child. She loved it. In Manhattan, ocean swimming was out of the question, but she used public pools and she’d taught Nicky to swim almost before he could walk. Any time she could she’d take him swimming, and now her salary was good there’d been a couple of magic holidays where she’d been able to introduce him to waves.

He swam as well as she did.

And he loved this. She watched his face as he hit the water-watched his incredulous delight.

She knew he’d been torn since they’d arrived. Telling him Nikos was his papa had pleased him on one level, but he was also confused. He’d responded well initially, but she needed to follow up.

Or…Nikos needed to follow up, she acknowledged, and that scared her. Nikos getting to know her son.

Nikos getting to know his son.

They both needed distraction. ‘I’ll race you to the headland,’ she called, and he grinned and put his head down and swam. She could still beat him, she thought, but not for long.

He had Nikos’s long, lean body. He had a start on her now-and she’d have a struggle to catch him.

But then…The sound of an incoming boat reverberated through the water. She felt it rather than heard it.

She lifted her head to see…

Nikos was about to bait a craypot when he heard it. He paused, shielding his eyes from the sun. What the…?

A speedboat was coming in from the north. Fast. This type of boat was almost unknown on Argyros. No islander had money for a boat that didn’t pay its keep, and this one looked like a toy of the wealthy. It was built for speed, and right now the thing was almost airborne.

As it grew nearer the noise was almost deafening. It was heading across the entrance to the cove, as if its skipper was intent on circumnavigating the island as some dumb speed challenge.

He didn’t like it.

He didn’t like it one bit.

Instinctively he reached for the throttle. He was hauling on the rudder. And suddenly he was yelling.

For he knew. Suddenly, sickeningly, he knew.

‘Thena,’ he yelled. He was hauling his boat around with all the power at his disposal, yelling into the radio. ‘Get them out of the water. Get them out…’

Maybe he was mistaken. Maybe they’d pass.

But he was right. At the last minute the boat swerved in towards the beach, its engine still screaming. There were two men crouched low. Dressed in black. Hooded.

There wasn’t an identifying mark on the vessel.

All this he saw in the split second before the boat had passed. Heading straight past him, into the cove.

With one aim.

‘Thena,’ he yelled again, but his boat wouldn’t pull round fast enough. The fishing trawler was too big, she wasn’t powerful enough, he couldn’t get to the woman he loved in time to save her…

She’d just reached Nicky. She caught his foot and tugged.

He spluttered and came up laughing. ‘You little fish,’ she said and hugged him-and then glanced sideways at the source of the noise.

And grabbed Nicky, hauling him against her. They hung together in the water, watching. They were close to a beach. They were hardly out of the shallows.

The boat would veer away.

It wouldn’t. Instead it turned slightly…